FLAT
| Target Type: Intrusion-hosted gold |
| Location: Northwest Territories, Canada |
Overview
The FLAT property is located in the Flat River valley, 10 km south of the historic Cantung Mine, 5 km from the mine access roads in the Tungsten District of the Tombstone Gold Belt. The area hosts a number of Cretaceous-aged intrusions, which the Rackla team has determined are prospective for Reduced-intrusion Related Gold System (RIRGS) occurrences. Historical mapping and sampling, which primarily focused on the exploration for tungsten, identified features that are indicators of the potential for RIRGS in the region.
Property Tenure
Rackla Metals staked the FLAT property claims in the NWT in June 2023 and owns 100% of the mineral claim rights. The property consists of three mineral claims measuring 2,567 hectares.
Exploration History
The Flat River valley has undergone a significant amount of historic exploration work, particularly in the 1960’s and 1970’s, with the focus on tungsten potential due to the discovery and production from the Cantung tungsten mine. Some of this exploration activity has occurred on the FLAT property, however the focus has always been for tungsten skarn potential and not for gold potential. There has been little work conducted within the property area and there is nothing documented from the 1990’s to the present.
In 1961, Canada Tungsten Mining Corporation Ltd acquired a 2-year prospecting permit covering the area south of the Cantung mine. They conducted a geological reconnaissance program and noted scheelite mineralization associated with a small Cretaceous intrusive plug southeast of the FLAT property, which they called the Pyramid Batholith.
The following year Canada Tungsten conducted geological mapping on the prospecting permit and identified eight skarn occurrences with pyrrhotite and minor scheelite mineralization in and around the Pyramid Batholith. Later that year, they drilled two holes for a total of 235 m of “wildcat” drilling on one of the occurrences known as the BUS showing. The drill program returned abundant pyrrhotite mineralization with only minor tungsten values.
In 1979, Canada Tungsten conducted a regional stream-sediment sampling program covering the area from the Cantung mine south to the FLAT area. The samples were analysed for copper, lead, zinc, molybdenum, tin, and tungsten. The program returned weak anomalies for copper, lead, and zinc, but no significant tungsten anomalies. Later that year, the company staked the Nahanni claim (partially covering the current FLAT property) and conducted a short program of mapping and sampling. Their work identified quartz-arsenopyrite-scorodite veins in a quartz monzonite stock. They also noted copper-tungsten bearing skarn mineralization in the hornfels contact aureole in the marginal sedimentary rocks.
In 1980, Union Carbide Canada Limited conducted a stream sediment sampling program on the east side of the Flat River valley and noted anomalous bismuth values east of the creek they called Glacier Creek. They also note that “native bismuth has been discovered in various parts of the intrusive”.
In 1984, Canada Tungsten did a small blast trenching program on the Nahanni claim. The trench samples were only analysed for copper, zinc and tungsten. This program returned values up to 2.78% copper, 2.32% zinc and 0.56% WO3.
Geological Setting
The FLAT property covers the northern portion of a potassium feldspar porphyritic biotite monzogranite belonging to the Cretaceous-age Tungsten Suite on the south side of the property and smaller dykes or plugs of similar intrusive composition on the east side of the property. The monzogranite intrudes phyllite, siltstone and sandstone of the Vampire Formation and, argillite, slate, shale and limestone of the Gull Lake Formation.
The Gull Lake limestone has been called the “Swiss Cheese” limestone by geologists working at the Cantung mine because of its porosity. It is the main host for tungsten skarn mineralization in the Flat River valley.
The historic exploration work has discovered eight skarn occurrences on the property that have abundant pyrrhotite and variable amounts of copper and tungsten. These occurrences occur in the limestone unit and are mostly located proximal to the intrusion, but intrusive sources have not been identified in all instances
Exploration Target
Rackla believes the FLAT property has significant RIRGS potential. Evidence for this is:
- Cretaceous-age monzogranite intrusion, dykes and small plugs belonging to the Tungsten Suite.
- The magnetic low in the center of the ilmenite-rich, magnetite-poor intrusion and magnetic high shoulders of the contact aureole.
- Contact metasomatism of the contact aureole of the Cretaceous intrusion.
- A number of pyrrhotite-rich skarn occurrences associated with the altered contact aureoles.
- Quartz-arsenopyrite-scorodite veins observed in a quartz monzonite intrusion, but no record of them having been analysed for gold.
- Bismuth anomalies in stream sediment samples and bismuth mineralization observed in the intrusive rocks in the region.
Coming Soon: Photos
Coming Soon: Videos
Coming Soon: Reports
